Kansas lawmaker’s license suspended due to conflict of interest in murder case

WICHITA, Kansas – A Republican congressman from Kansas who abandoned his re-election campaign last month after being arrested during a traffic stop is now barred from practicing law for at least a year for mishandling conflicts of interest in a murder case.

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that state Rep. Carl Maughan of Colwich violated professional standards when he represented 57-year-old Bret Blevins in a 2016 car crash that killed two men, according to the Kansas City Star newspaper.

Maughan did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press on Sunday or to a phone call from the newspaper on Friday. He previously defended the way he handled the Blevins case, even though Blevins is now suing Maughan over it.

The conflicts of interest in this case came to light because Maughan had previously represented Blevins’ girlfriend, Tammy Akers, in drunken driving cases and had accepted $30,000 from Akers and her husband to defend Blevins.

Akers and Blevins were the only occupants of the vehicle that struck and killed the two men in a van. Akers served as a key witness in the trial, where Maughan blamed Akers for the accident, claiming she was the driver.

The Supreme Court ruled that the conflict of interest waivers signed by Maughan did not adequately address the situation and did not fully inform Blevins and Akers of the consequences.

Ultimately, Blevins was sentenced to more than 60 years in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder. But the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled four years later that he deserved a new trial due to Maughan’s conflicts of interest. He subsequently pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison.

Maughan announced last month that he was dropping out of the race for his House seat, but his name will still be on the primary ballot along with three other Republicans because he missed the deadline to withdraw his candidacy.

He is charged with two misdemeanors and two traffic violations following a traffic stop in Topeka in March. He is accused of possession of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, driving while under the influence, failure to signal to change lanes and failure to drive safely off a single-lane roadway. His attorney in the Topeka case did not immediately respond to an email Sunday.